This lawsuit is about leveling the playing field. The financial institutions caused the housing bubble to be created by pursuing profit motives with no regard to realistic underwriting criteria. When the bubble burst and they were one week from collapsing (going out of business) and causing a World Wide end to financial markets – we, the taxpayers, bailed them out. The government then directed them to pursue policies designed to modify mortgages and avoid foreclosure. Instead, the industry gave lip skink to the requirements – ignoring the directives and choosing to cause millions of homeowners to be played like fish in the process of attempting to modify their mortgages, only to be told at the last minute, “Your paperwork was incomplete, or you didn’t respond timely.” Then bang – the house is sold at the foreclosure sale 2 to 4 weeks later. Motives – it’s easy. The banks, in our perverse world – are better off foreclosing because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – have to buy back the mortgages and end up covering the loss – not them. That cost was already at $148 Billion in November, 2010 and is estimated to exceed $280 billion. Guess who is paying for it? The banks, instead of appreciating the fact that we allowed them to stay in business, have simply continued to push the costs of their failure business practices to the taxpayers. Ms. Boser is the Class Representative of those Michiganders – who are the victims of the banks wrongful conduct. If successful, the banks, not the taxpayers, will be forced to absorb the losses they caused and some (but not all) of the people harmed will benefit. Ms. Boser’s and all future class representatives’ actions deserve our best wishes and applause.

Here’s the problem with MERS class action suits, they don’t go anywhere. Most of the issues you bring up in the above article have nothing to do with MERS, they are mortgage servicing issues. MERS is a registry service not a lender. They don’t own anything. Courts have ruled across the US that the scope of what MERS can do is limited. They only exist so the lender can avoid paying filing fees or taxes with a the clerk or register of deeds whenever a mortgage is sold on the secondary market. It was also set up to hide the mortgage securitization process from the general public. That however changed two years ago when they opened it up to the public. In loans that have been securitized and sold into asset backed securities, the mortgage servicer is responsible for the modifications and foreclosures, because REMIC rules dictate the Trustee of the Asset Backed Security has no say in what happens during the management of the loan. If you’re going to file a class action, you would be better off if you filed it against the loans servicer or the law firm who handled the foreclosure paper work.

Steve – I agree. Our lawsuits are filed against the lenders – not MERS. In Michigan, conversion is defined as the exercise of dominion and control over another person’s property, and the statute provides for treble damages. This is the strongest of the various claims we are asserting. Thanks for the comment. Ken

Even though MERS opened their website to look up your mortgage, MERS mortgage records are not up-to-date. When your loan was sold to Fannie or Freddie, MERS does not show who the MBS was sold to or who holds the note. Thus, MERS still misleads homeowners. What is worse, is when you call the mortgage servicer,the servicer will not disclose the investor or holder of the loan. Fannie and Freddie do not hold mortgages. They act as pass through entities.

Last week a judge in Washtenaw County ruled in favor of a Plaintiff who was foreclosed upon in which the note was not assigned properly to the trust before issuing the Mortgage Back(MBS).

Here is another issue at hand. Given Michigan is a non-judicial state, how can a mortgage servicer assign their attorney to act as agent? An agent is a n outside party to a relationship where one party (Owner) provides the agent certain rights and capabilities to act on their behalf. This also includes being able to sign legal documents or receive legal or tax documents on behalf of the party they are acting on behalf of. If their attorney has no knowledge of the mortgage file, payment history…etc, then how can they ethically accept legal documents from their client knowing that they could be falsified?

My one personal thought is that our court system is such a joke. Our court system is supposed to be set up to help an unsophisticated consumer, but the reality is that the court system takes advantage of them.

I have extensive knowledge in the securitizaton process of loans, but I do not have the legal background to take my servicer to the court and prevail.

Very Interesting….I have been searching for an opportunity to partipate in a class action suit & if none was out there, filing on behalf of myself. Mortgage servicer is PHH, Freddie Mac loan, and I guess Citizens holds the note (BTW Citizens was provided with 30m in TARP funds & has only dispersed 10m). PHH is currently being investigated by the NJ AG and OFIR in Michigan for modification practices (or rather, lack of…). I was mailed a modification contract dated Feb. 4, I received it on Feb. 11, house went to Sheriffs sale on Feb. 8. Trott & Trott (who states they working with the servicer) has been asking for “updated” info and most recently TWO additional completed applications( March & June). I have cpmpleted four total applications. I am to be out of the house August 8th. I was told by T&T (Lorisha) that as long as I was “in review” there would be no eviction. However, Kim (also T&T) stated even if I was “in review”, I would be evicted…I have been pre approved for HAMP, then not approved, then approved for a “standard” mod, and have been capable of making my payments for over a year…This is crazy. I am going to take the long road and present my case to the eviction judge for some additional time to move out due to all of the conflicting responses… there is simply nothing else left for me do.